Staff
Our staff currently includes partners Jenny Gelfan and PJ Morgan plus associates Carol Bates Carpenter, Ashley Denk, and Pat Stebbins.
Jenny Gelfan - partner
Education: MA ed., Graduate Nippon Shiatsu Diagaku, Certified Shiatsu practitioner, AOBTA, Nationally Certified Massage Practitioner, NCTMB, Advanced trainings in pain management, myofascial therapies, tuina, massage for cancer survivors and the critically ill, sports massage, bodymind therapies, lymphatic massage and more.
RELATED Work Experience: 1980-present: private massage practice (sometimes part time) 1992-present: presentations, workshops and classes on massage at Dartmouth College, DHMC, the Women’s Health Resource Center, various community locations, and for CCV in Brattleboro, Burlington, and Montpelier.
Professional Affiliations: Past president of the Vermont Massage Guild, a statewide professional group that existed for 25 years, Member of the American Organization for the Bodywork Therapies of Asia Nationally certified for massage, NCTMB
Jenny says: "I provide treatments to help people move towards better health, relaxation, vitality and peace."
Testimonial: "Jenny has been a tremendous support to me in some on my most trying times. I have been healing a chronic pain situation and she has been the best coach anyone could ask for. She knows the physiological and psychological components to pain and can teach anyone how to manage it and often release it. She shows respect for each individual process as well. This facilitates feeling comfortable right away." JLH
PJ Morgan - partner
PJ Morgan graduated from the Green Mountain Institute and established her private practice in Vermont in 2006. She is a member of the ABMP. She is also a Reiki II practitioner.
Education: UMass Lowell, BA education BA fine arts, Certificate Graphic Design, GMI: Integrative Bodywork and Massage, Usui Shiki Ryoho Advanced Reiki Practitioner
Related Work Experience: Manager of New England Orthodontic Lab 1986 - 2006. Massage practitioner First Impressions . Woodstock, private massage practice 2006 - present
Professional Affiliations: ABMP, Co-Chair Norwich Business Council, Ambassador for Hanover Area Chamber of Commerce, Member BNI: Twin State
PJ has developed a reputation for meeting your unique needs and making sure that each client leaves feeling relaxed and happy.
Testimonial: "You've got the hands!" R.P.
Carol Bates Carpenter - Associate
Carol Bates Carpenter has had a private massage practice since 2001, and recently joined The Massage Center as a Healing Arts Associate. She specializes in Thai massage, and also provides Swedish and deep tissue massage. She is a member of ABMP.
Ashley Denk - Associate
Ashley Denk recently returned to the Upper Valley. She received her massage training at Life Stream Massage School in Napa, California and worked in that area for six years as a massage practitioner and spa director. Her earth-based healing techniques sprout from training in swedish relaxation, hot stone massage, reflexology, aromatherapy, acupressure, Reiki, tuina sports massage and deep tissue. She believes massage can be as rejuvenating as it is relaxing. She has been an ABMP member since 2003.
Ashley says: "I believe BALANCE is the key to acheiving true health and happiness. Both quiet time and play time are essential to fuel the spirit. My strong love and appreciation for the natural world help contribute to this philosophy. I use my knowledge and experience to guide you towards health and harmony."
Pat Stebbins - Associate
Pat has loved and studied music since the age of three, starting with the piano. She played French horn, various Rennaissance instruments, and guitar. She majored in voice in college and has a BA in music performance. Patricia Stebbins took up the harp at age 33. Wanting to do more with music, in 2007 she began her studies with Bedside Harp, a harp therapy certification program based in Bucks County, PA, and in August 2009 became a Certified Harp Therapist, Hospital Intensive. She feels this is a way to give back some of the joy and healing music has brought into her own life.
James Novakowski - Associate
Swedish massage, deep tissue, connective tissue massage, Polarity Therapy, and other specialties. He incorporates neuromuscular technique and cranial sacral work into his treatments.
Novakowski grew up in Massachusetts and graduated from Dartmouth College in 2009 with a double major in Earth Sciences and Native American Studies. After graduating, having tired of academic work, he decided to seek out ways of working with his hands, in order to physically connect with his until-then abstracted education. He took part in a Permaculture Design Course led by Burlington Permaculture in Burlington, VT. He then decided to begin training as a massage therapist, believing that it would provide a unique way of relating to other people and a way of earning income that was both readily transportable and in growing demand.
He sees Massage Therapy as aligning well with both his academic training and with the deeper passions that sustain him in life. He writes: "In Earth Sciences, a sophisticated understanding of forms has provided me with an understanding of the dynamic forces that have historically shaped and now continue to shape a landscape. Such ways of seeing are what draw me to bodywork, wherein one may see the history of a being recorded on the body, and touch that body/being in a way that can both support the healthy growth and maturation of that being (at any age) and educate the body into healthier, more balanced patterns of function."
Novakowski now lives in Hanover, new Hampshire, and when not at the Massage Center, can often be found at Rosey’s Café serving an exceptional Cappuccino or Latte. He is also enjoying his newfound activities of mountain biking and home-brewing, separately of course.
Janet Lawrence Heartson - Associate
Janet Lawrence Heartson is a Wellness Consultant who will have office hours at The Massage Center in Norwich. Janet helps people quit bad habits and change negative behaviors. She is certified in Kinesiology, NLP and Reiki, and trained in psychology and spirituality. Her healing process also integrates toning and shamanic work. She provides gentle and effective help with health concerns, behaviors and habits, relationships, past traumas, phobias, learning troubles, childhood issues, and more.
Janet can focus on a person’s physical, nutritional, muscular and emotional concerns to help them move forward in life. She helps address things that can be deeply rooted, shedding light on what may have been unconscious so that the individual can change. A native of the Upper Valley area, she has 20 years experience doing this kind of work.
For appointments with Janet in Norwich at The Massage Center, call her at 802-633-3810.
More associates will be joining the practice.